Meet The Latest Autopians, What’s-His-Name And The Australian!

If there’s one thing we pride ourselves on here at the Autopian, it’s being on the bleeding edge of news! We give you the news when it’s hot! Especially when it’s news about ourselves! That’s why I’m delighted to make this announcement of some new hires that have only been working here for months! In one case, many, many months! That’s how on the ball we are – getting you the latest, hottest, gossiest goss only months and months out of date! So, with that in mind, please welcome to the Autopian Family Peter Viera and Lewin Day.

Lewin is our Australian Bureau Chief and Peter is our, um, Editorial Production Manager as well as our Social Media Manager, and, should we ever expand into the food service industries, our Saucier. You’re likely familiar with the work of both of them, since Lewin has been writing stories for us for a while now and Pete has been the witty, very Autopian-voice behind our social media channels for, shit, even longer.

So, it’s probably high time you get to know these two young go-getters better! With that in mind, we have crafted a series of insightful, and deeply-probing questions, the answers to which should tell you as much about these fine humans as if you spent a solid week, trapped in an elevator with them. So, with that mind, let’s roll up our sleeves and slide our hands deep into the warm dampness of these fellas’ brains!

Lewin Day

• What do you drive? Tell us about all your miserawonderful project cars and the pain and joy they bring you

Lewin: When I was 25, I realized that despite being a car fanatic, I’d never actually owned a sports car. Before that, my most beloved vehicle was the glorious Daihatsu Feroza, far superior to the early carby Suzuki Jimnys, in my opinion. Anyway, within six months, I’d scored myself a junky Miata and crossed that off my list. It taught me how to wrench better and how to make a race car really handle. I also grabbed a Volvo 740 Turbo, which taught me the stoutness and reliability of Swedish steel. Oh, and how bad a big wagon is when the shocks are all shot to pieces. 

Those two have since left my stable, and I’m currently running a 1998 Mercedes E240 and a 2008 BMW 320D. The former, I used as proof that you could buy an old German luxury car without falling into financial ruin. Thus far it’s only let me down once, and the fix was… topping up the coolant.

In contrast, the 320D has been a massive pain in my ass. It was supposed to replace the Mercedes, but I’ve never been able to trust it long enough to sell the Merc. Hell, I decided I’d sell the BMW this weekend, and then all hell broke loose…

• What drew you to The Autopian? How would you like to see it develop?

Lewin: Years and years ago, when I was an engineer, toiling away in the bowels of a filthy auto plant, I was consumed by sadness. You’d walk the aisles between machines, nod to your fellows doing their time in the trenches. It was a dim, dark place, filled with grim faces.“How’s it going?” you’d ask one of the operators. “Livin’ the dream, mate,” they’d respond.You learned to stop asking after the first week or so. It was a difficult place to work, where hope was a rare thing.

In between meetings and tending to the disasters of the day, I’d sit at my computer and fire up Jalopnik. All those years ago, it was a little bit of joy in a string of bleak, tiresome workdays. I’d read about cars, laugh at the excellent jokes, and have a ball bantering with everyone else in the comments.

Eventually, I built myself a career that pulled me out of that factory and into a far more enjoyable position in the blogosphere. I started out writing in tech, but it was always my dream to get into auto journalism. Moreso than that, I wanted to work somewhere that wasn’t just rewriting press releases about the latest option packages on some new mass-market SUV. I wanted to write somewhere that understood what cars actually mean to enthusiasts. It’s the love stories, the grand tragedies, the comedy of errors when someone buys an old Land Rover. I knew that’s what I was supposed to be doing. 

 Now I’m here, I’m having a ball. As for development, I think all The Autopian needs is more. Ever bigger, grander projects and adventures. I know I’ve got a few wild ideas of my own on the boil. 

• If you could have any car in the world, why would you make a big thing out of not picking an Isuzu I-Mark?

Lewin: There’s actually a great reason not to pick an Isuzu I-Mark! Out here, they were sold as the Holden Gemini. For a generation before mine, they were, like , the ultimate high-school starter car. Cheap and cheerful but still rear-wheel-drive for the usual Aussie naughtiness (donuts and burnouts). With all that nostalgia tied up in them, they’re far too expensive to bother with now. Plus, the Gemini is somebody else’s cultural icon, not mine

For me, my ride-or-die is still the Nissan 180SX or its sister, the S13 Silvia. I missed a chance to pick one up for $2,500 when I was an impoverished university student. Times changed, and what was once a JDM performance bargain is now a bonafide collector’s item. I might have to buy and then remortgage a house, but I’ll get one, one day…

• What non-car things interest you?

Lewin: I’m living a pretty rich life of late. Music has been going crazy for me in the last couple years. I play hot chiptune sets around Australia (and hopefully soon internationally… :O) as Anti Lag. I’ve released a quality single or two, most of which are too sexy to mention here, and I really need to get another three or four out this year. I’m bouncing out of my Autopian shift later today to hurriedly finish a track for an exciting compilation release. My band Rabbit Sex Mask is also building towards its first single launch in a month or so with a proper beer-drenched Aussie film clip in the works. Now that I think about it, I don’t know why we didn’t ask Laurence to drive down for that one!

As we’ve previously discussed, I’m big into electronics and my solar-powered robot rover which I sent into the Australian outback a few years ago. The project’s been on hiatus for a while, because I need a few weeks of dedicated engineering time to build the new version. But in the back of my head, I’m always ticking over ideas for future missions. 

Oh, and I really dig Lego trains. I just ordered $200 worth of track yesterday. Can’t wait.

• What’s your birthdate, social security number (or AU equivalent), and debit card number and pin, being sure to include the three-digit number on the back?

You know, it’s weird, Australia doesn’t really have a single number it uses to refer to individual citizens. My identity is instead scattered across a variety of numbers, all of which can be loosely tied together by government officials or intelligence agencies where necessary. 

Finding out the rest, I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader! I’m pretty easy to track down. Thanks to a certain Autopian writer, I’m the #1 result on Google for “Australian Urinators.” Funny that.

Okay, thanks, Lewin! That’s edifying. Let’s leave him to play with his Lego trains and urinating and let’s see what Pete has for answers to these questions!

Peter Vieira

• So, what do you actually DO here?

Peter: I make a lot of the home-page story graphics, topshots as we like to call them, which is a ton of fun. On the copy side, I edit half or maybe two-thirds of the stories that go up each day, which is also fun! Editing skilled writers is a treat, and all the Autopian authors are genuine pros and generous collaborators. I also put together the Wednesday and Friday newsletters (subscribe here!), and I handle the content for The Autopian on Twitter (yep, still calling it Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

• What do you drive?

Peter: Eh, I suppose you had to ask. A 2015 RAV4. That I share with my wife. OK, that’s out there now. But I will be getting a new (to me) car soon. What will it be? I dunno man, I’m all over the place. One day I’m looking at anything and everything with a Buick 3800 V6, the next it’s Kia Stingers, there was a stretch where I was all about Panther barges …

• Tell us about all your miserawonderful project cars and the pain and joy they bring you

Peter: All my project cars are between 1:24 and 1:8 scale actually, with way too many radio-control and plastic-model car projects to list. Like [Shitbox Showdown author] Mark Tucker, I’m really into trail trucks and off-roading with radio-control 4X4s. I also get down with Lego Technics and Speed Champions sets.

• What drew you to The Autopian? How would you like to see it develop?

Peter: I was already a fan of the Autopian gang when they were writing for other outlets, so of course I was an Autopian reader from the jump. When I saw the call go out for a social media person to help out part time, I leapt at the chance to do something with the people I enjoy reading so much. And they’re all fantastic! They say “don’t meet your heroes,” but this was definitely an exception. How would I like The Autopian to develop … just bigger and better, man. More stories, more videos, more merch. There’s so much potential.

• If you could have any car in the world, why would you make a big thing out of not picking an Isuzu I-Mark?

Peter: I wouldn’t. Is this a trick to make sure there’s one more Isuzu I-Mark Turbo RS out there for you? Well, you failed, because I would take one. That, or maybe a Buick Riviera with the supercharged 3800. But probably not as my any-car-in-the-world pick, which would be a nice 1988 Dodge Omni. No, not the GLH, the regular one. I have reasons.

• What non-car things interest you?

Peter: I’m a big movie guy and science-fiction nerd, and I have a bunch of vintage mountain bikes in various stages of restoration and repair. Too many projects!

• What’s your birthdate, social security number, and debit card number and pin, being sure to include the three-digit number on the back?

Peter: Again? I just sent them to you!

So there you go! You know have two new friends! Mazel tov!